Suits target fertilizer plant owner in wake of deadly Texas explosion

Just two days after the Boston Marathon bombings, another deadly explosion killed innocent people halfway across the country.

On April 17, an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 14 people, injured hundreds and destroyed dozens of nearby homes and an apartment complex. Now, the plant’s owner—Adair Grain Inc.—is facing two negligence lawsuits from Andrea Jones Gutierrez, a woman who lost her apartment in the disaster, and several insurance companies representing various individuals, churches and businesses affected by the explosion.

Gutierrez seeks between $500,000 and $1 million in damages. The other lawsuits don’t specify a damages amount because the plaintiffs are still determining what they lost.

A spokesman for Adair Grain declined to comment to Thomson Reuters about the lawsuits, saying that the company’s “focus is on the fact-finding and on assisting the investigating agencies in any way we can.”

Investigators are still investigating what caused the deadly explosion.